How can I manipulate several hair strands instead of the whole hair?
If you want to use different kink settings for the hair then you need several Particle Settings. The settings always affect all strands made with a particular setting. So the trick is to use several settings and assign them to different areas.
In Weight Paint mode you can define Vertex Groups. (Use the + button to create a new group.) The in the Particle Settings you can assign these groups. The Density group restricts the area for the hair strands.
In the following example, there are two weight painted groups &quot;Curl&quot; and &quot;Radial&quot;, and there are two hair particle settings (2 slots). The groups are assigned to the respective particle settings. The areas can even overlap if you want.